Wesleyan’s 124-year-old tradition helps ‘sisters’ with scholarships

STUNT, a long-standing tradition that builds sisterhood and teamwork and lends itself to charity, will take place at 7 p.m. Saturday in Porter Auditorium at Wesleyan College.

The performance is actually four plays that are written, developed, acted and produced by students.

Although the actual words that the acronym STUNT stands for has long been lost to the past, Melissa Rodriguez, assistant director of the Lane Center for Service and Leadership at Wesleyan College, said that the event started in 1896 and originated with the Young Women’s Christian Association as a scholarship opportunity for a student in the rising senior class who needed to get funding for her final year at Wesleyan. It started out with one member of each of the class writing and directing her own comedic theater play event.

The cost to attend the first STUNT was a mere 25 cents, and the proceeds benefited the YWCA. In turn, the organization sponsored scholarships for rising seniors.

“Around the 1940s, it became the competition it is now. So no longer was it just one student writing the play, it was a group of students from each class writing a play for their class,” she explained.

The writing portion of each play, which is 15 to 30 minutes long, begins in October, according to Rodriguez, and many people are involved. Just between the writing and cast, there are about 50 students, and then there are numerous other committees and faculty boards involved in the making of the event.

In addition to storylines, the students write new lyrics to old songs to go along with the plays, all while keeping the songs and storylines secret from each other. Rodriguez said some changes this year include renting the large backdrops from Backdrops Fantastic in downtown Macon.

In the past, students have had the time-consuming task of manually designing and painting the backdrops. Now, however, they are bringing in community partnerships, so the students can put all their efforts into the props, costumes, and storylines, instead of focusing on decorating the backdrop.

“All of the STUNTs used to be about what it meant to be a student or a student with the woes of campus,” she said. “They have moved away from those themes; they can be a creative as the students want. They are only limited by their imagination. It’s great to see what they come up with. We have some brilliant students on campus.”

On stunt night, excitement and enthusiasm runs high between the classes as they compete for the two coveted cups — the STUNT cup and the Spirit cup, according to Rodriguez . She said the STUNT cup is awarded to the class whose musical production best reflects the unity of their classmates and who accumulates the most points from the judges in the areas originality, continuity of plot, choreography, costumes, music and makeup. The Spirit cup is awarded to the class that shows the most spirit in carrying out the ideals of STUNT, which includes encouragement to others, enthusiasm and unity. The classes who win these cups gets “bragging rights” for the year.

“I think STUNT really provides the community sisterhood that Wesleyan is famous for, and in a lot of ways, since a lot has happened at Wesleyan, we have started to lose that, but STUNT has helped to bring that back,” said Isabelle King, STUNT chair, who is a senior at Wesleyan. “Working with all your classmates that you don’t’ normally get to see or talk to because they aren’t in your major - it kind of brings all the classes together.”

“Classes are challenged and sisterhood is strengthened through teamwork and the dream of achieving the most coveted honor of all, the STUNT Cup,” Mary Ann Howard, director of communications, wrote in a statement. “STUNT is indeed one of the most powerful Wesleyan traditions.”

The money generated from STUNT goes into funding scholarships for rising seniors who have participated in STUNT over the last few years, according to Rodriguez. The applicants for the scholarships are required to write a two-page essay talking about how STUNT has changed them and helped them grow as a student leader and submit an application. The winners of the $500 scholarships are selected by a committee and staff, and the number of scholarships vary from year to year, depending on the proceeds raised from the year before.

“This is my fourth year doing STUNT,” said King. “I was on the writing committee until my junior year when I was co-chair, and now I am the chair. In all of them, my favorite thing is getting to see the classes putting (the plays) on. They are all excited to be there and happy. This year, my favorite thing has been instructing the first years and showing them STUNT and getting to see them learn about it….seeing it through new eyes.”

“For many Wesleyannes, STUNT forever holds a special place in their hearts and signifies sisterhood at its best,” Howard wrote. “The unity begins long before the curtains open on that most exciting Saturday night.”

If you go

What: Stunt, a collection of plays written and performed by students

Where: Porter Auditorium, Wesleyan College, 4760 Forsyth Road, Macon

When: 7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 29

Cost: Tickets are $5 for students and $7 for the general public. They can be purchased at the door or by calling 757-5180.

This story was originally published February 28, 2020 at 5:00 AM.